Great Resource….or Wasteland?
I enjoy photography. The learning process is never ending. I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. I am pretty sure if you asked any working photographer if they have learned all there is to know about photography they could not look you in the eye and say yes. Once you figure one thing out, up pops another. Sort of like Whack a Mole.
Back in the day, I would search book stores. Once I found an interesting book I would take it home and read it like it was the only book I had and then practice, practice, practice. Many times though, there were no new titles on the shelves. Not to be deterred, I just went home and browsed through a book I already had on the shelf and went out and practiced, practiced, practiced.
Then a funny thing happened. I discovered digital photography and the internet.
The interwebs have been an invaluable tool for me in my learning process. There are more photography sites out there than you can shake a stick at. I have run into some really great sites over the years. Just like back in the good old days, I will study a tutorial on a web site, instead of a chapter in a book, and practice on a picture. Sometimes it worked. The picture improved a little. Sometimes things got out of control. That is where the name PhotoAbuse came from. The thing is though, I never threw in the towel. I would just try it again or try a different approach. There is more than one way to skin a cat. Not that I have actually ever done that….
The coolest thing about the internet is that people share ideas and techniques. Some photographers won’t share anything and that’s fine. But there are some folks out there who will take you step by step through a process. Sort of a cookie cutter approach but cool if you want to make a similar picture. Then there are the cool sites. They will explain the theory. Those are the golden sites! If you can learn the theory, you can apply it anywhere.
Then there are the photo sites with forums or discussions. These are the sites you stumble on that have a great deal of information. I like visiting these sites. If I had a question, I would go to a site and search for an anwer. The key word there is search. More often than not, the answer to your question is already out there, you just have to find it.
A troubling presence lately are the folks who post without searching. On Flickr, it is out of control in some of the groups. I went to one group last week and there were 2 new posts at the top of the page that were identical! A simple search would have found 10 – 20 posts dealing with the same subject. It would seem that a lot of people out there just want to be spoon fed. I’m convinced that they wouldn’t know what a manual was if it hit them in the head.
Classic questions are:
- I have 850.00 to spend on lighting equipment. What should I buy? Don’t know about you but I wouldn’t let a stranger spend my money.
- I was just hired to shoot a family portrait. How should I light it? This question must have been asked 500 times. In the same group
- I have been hired to shoot a wedding Saturday. What lens should I buy? I would love to see the finished album!
I kid you not!
I find myself working on my pictures more than I surf the interwebs lately. I still go to a few sites to see what’s up, but not nearly as much as I did a few years ago. It’s not like I know that much, but when I have a question, I search for it. Much quicker.
The one thing I do enjoy is my Google Reader. I have subscribed to a lot of feeds. All different subjects, but photography being the major one. I can look at my reader and know when a new post has been made, read a small snippet of that post, and if it looks interesting, go to the site and read the whole article. I also make use of Alltop. This is a great site for finding different blogs dealing with an extraordinary range of subject matter. Pretty cool if you ask me.
The internet contains a wealth of knowledge. It can also be a vast wasteland. It’s all in how you use it.
